Disposable lunch boxes, plastic bags are less, e-commerce in a large number of plastic packaging should also do some rules?

Recently, Mr. Qiu, a citizen, bought two boxes of fruits online, opened the box, in addition to the four layers of thick foam on the surface pad, each fruit has a small room with foam "customization", and also wears a white "small coat", which is also a plastic product. The amount of fruit is not much, but the foam packaging is filled with two large garbage bags: "Although it is to protect the safety of the express delivery process, is there too much foam?" ”

The white pollution caused by the excessive packaging of e-commerce has also been noticed by the members of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Chen Xin, Tang Yi, Zhang Xiangmin and other 16 members of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference jointly submitted the "Proposal on Strictly Restricting the Use of Foam Packaging Materials by E-commerce in Express Transportation", hoping to restrict the use of plastic products by e-commerce through various means and increase the reuse of such materials.

In the investigation, the committee found that in addition to fragile items such as glass products, many items that were not originally packaged with foam materials have begun to use foam in large quantities. "For example, some meat, seafood, food that need to be frozen, a foam material incubator box has almost become the standard; some expensive, more fragile fruits, such as peaches, have specially customized foam material boxes; glass bottles of wine, edible oil, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and even pickles, there are also special foam boxes or wrapped in layers of thick foam material film." In addition to these packagings, the commissioners said, the bulk foam material is also heavily used as shock absorbing protective material in express boxes.

Chen Xin and other members of the investigation found that in the foam polymer materials, foamed polyethylene (EPE) and foam polypropylene (EPP) performance is good but the price is more expensive, foamed polystyrene polyethylene mixture (EPO) although it can be used in less amount, smaller packaging volume to improve the protective performance, reduce the impact on the environment, but mainly used for high-grade and cushioning requirements of home appliance packaging. As a result, cheap expanded polystyrene (EPS) is still the first choice for many e-commerce companies – the single-use plastic lunch box that used to be called "white pollution" is the same foam polystyrene (EPS) used. After a period of governance, disposable plastic lunch boxes have almost disappeared, and the amount of disposable plastic shopping bags has been controlled, but "white pollution" has returned with the rapid development of e-commerce.

Committee members suggested that "source management" be used to reduce the production of plastic packaging. "Government departments limit the number of manufacturers of foam packaging materials by strictly controlling the approval conditions of enterprises; through environmental assessment, tax adjustment and other means, let existing manufacturers increase production costs, so as to promote their reduction of production until the transformation."

The increase in the cost of manufacturers is also conducive to encouraging e-commerce to reduce the use of such materials. "Encourage e-commerce companies to use materials such as rice bran, straw, shredded paper, corrugated cardboard as shockproof and packaging in express packages, and do not use plastic packaging materials without necessity."

The committee members also suggested that recycling should be encouraged for standard-sized insulated foam packaging boxes, large foam packaging films used to wrap items, and bulk foam materials for filling shock absorption, "on the one hand, giving these materials a suitable recycling price to stimulate consumers to be willing to recycle, but also giving support and preferential treatment to e-commerce companies that use these recycled materials." ”

Some members suggested that the large use of such materials to fill shock absorption is not unrelated to the "barbaric transportation" of the express delivery industry. They suggested further improving the service standards and service levels of the express delivery industry, thereby reducing the large-scale use of such materials by e-commerce.

Column Editor-in-Chief: Zhang Jun Text Editor: Jian Gongbo Title Image Source: Figureworm Creative Photo Editor: Xiang Jianying

Source: Author: Jian Gongbo